The Breakdown/ (Re)generation Project - Incite at Columbia University

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The Breakdown/ (Re)generation Project

  • Program budget $300,000
  • Seeded project 8

In the summer of 2024, Incite Institute set out to award $300,000 in new grants through our Breakdown/(Re)generation Project, which supports Columbia University Arts and Sciences initiatives related to breakdowns in the social and natural worlds.

At present, seemingly stable systems are undergoing profound transformations: climate change disrupts longstanding ecological balances, political shifts challenge post-World War II norms, evolving perceptions of gender reshape identity formation, and epistemic shifts redefine how we learn and create knowledge. These disruptions allow us to reimagine and reconstruct systems, institutions, and norms to promote justice and equity in society. Our interest lies not only in understanding these breakdowns but also in exploring the possibilities of (re)generation that they bring about.

Applications are currently closed.

Incubated Projects

  • go to Art in the Midst of Cultural and Ecological Crisis
    Art in the Midst of Cultural and Ecological Crisis
    Examining the work of artists responding to ecological crisis and cultural erasure. Part of the Breakdown/ (Re)generation Project
  • go to Making the X Multiple: “Y the X?”
    Making the X Multiple: “Y the X?”
    People behind the X in all their complexity, re/generating a spectrum of (gender)queer meanings while challenging gender markers’ essentialist meaning. Part of the Breakdown/ (Re)generation Project
  • go to Peer Exit and Adolescent Relations
    Peer Exit and Adolescent Relations
    Investigating how peer exits influence the structure of adolescent friendships and homework-helping relationships. Part of the Breakdown/ (Re)generation Project
  • go to The Bifurcation of Racial Justice Discourse
    The Bifurcation of Racial Justice Discourse
    Investigating the bifurcated conversation around Black Lives Matter using large web datasets. Part of the Breakdown/ (Re)generation Project
  • go to The Breakdown of Arctic Carbon
    The Breakdown of Arctic Carbon
    Creating new knowledge and provide critical insights into the ecology of the Arctic and the massive amount of carbon stored there. Part of the Breakdown/ (Re)generation Project
  • go to The Promise and Paradox of Climate Change Litigation
    The Promise and Paradox of Climate Change Litigation
    Examining ambitious litigation pursued by South African Indigenous groups to oppose mining and protect their way of life. Part of the Breakdown/ (Re)generation Project
  • go to The Social Study of Disappearance
    The Social Study of Disappearance
    Conducting a comparative study of forced disappearance. Part of the Breakdown/ (Re)generation Project

Related opportunities

  • go to Assembling Voices
    Assembling Voices
    Supporting US-based artists, writers, scholars, journalists, performers, activists, workers, and others with compelling ideas for public initiatives. Funded by Incite Institute
  • go to Don Quixote Award
    Don Quixote Award
    Supporting idealistic, romantic, creative, impractical, adventurous projects born of teachers’ passions with awards up to $5,000. In Partnership with Academy for Teachers
  • go to Global Change Program
    Global Change Program
    Supporting leaders around the world who engage communities to address some of the most pressing issues of our time. Funded by Incite Institute
  • go to Hard Questions Grant
    Hard Questions Grant
    Up to $75,000 for research that tackles hard questions with innovative approaches too risky for traditional funding mechanisms. Funded by Incite Institute